Don't Manage Time, Manage Yourself

Actually, I'm just the opposite. I love being spontaneous. I love having the freedom to follow my hunches. That's hard to do when you have 473 things gnawing away at you. The reason to get disciplined and organized is not just to be disciplined and organized. It's to "clear the decks" so that you can operate with a broader vision.

What's the one organization that never cracks in a crisis, that never complains about "putting out fires"? The fire department! Firefighters are constantly interrupted from doing their work. When the alarm goes off, everything gets interrupted - and most of the interruptions are false alarms.

Of course, firefighters don't complain about this reality - which is the reality of life in most organizations. They create methodical procedures to deal with it, and they implement those procedures with integrity. That's a good lesson. Your ability to deal with surprise elegantly, or to innovate in surprising ways, is the ultimate source of personal advantage. But you can't turn on a dime if you're always fumbling around.

David Beardsley david-beardsley@msn.com is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Contact David Allen david@davidco.com or visit the Web http://www.davidco.com .